GFC

GFC, Ltd.崇友實業股份有限公司
Year established	1974
Year of closure	currently still running
Status	Operating
Manufactures	Elevators, escalators, moving walks and pneumatic vacuum elevators
Headquarters	Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China
Service locations	Taiwan and China
Website	gfc.com.tw/
Subsidiaries
Shanghai GFC Elevator Co., Ltd.

GFC (Golden Friends Corporation, 崇友實業) is an elevator company from Taiwan, currently based in Taipei. It provides elevator and escalator installations under the GFC brand, and also distributes Toshiba elevators and escalators. It has an elevator factory in Yangmei District, Taoyuan which was completed in 1997 and is able to produce more than 3000 elevators a year.

History

GFC was established in 1974 and became an exclusive distributor of Toshiba elevators and escalators in Taiwan in 1975. In 1977, GFC signed a technical collaboration agreement with Toshiba. Twenty years later, GFC completed its elevator factory in Yangmei District, Taioyuan. In 1998, Shanghai GFC was established. GFC completed the Toshiba elevator installations at Taipei 101 in 2004, which was the fastest elevator in the world (with a speed of 1010 m/m) until the record was surpassed by Shanghai Tower's Mitsubishi elevators in 2016.

Genesis is introduced around 2014, made its debut in Farglory Financial Center, Taipei (4m/s).

Branches

GFC has branches located in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohshiung. It also has a service center in Miaoli City, as well as a branch in Shanghai, China. Its Yangmei factory is located in Yangmei District, Taoyuan City.

List of known models

Current

• GF Series: Standard passenger elevator with 60-150 m/min speed.
• Genesis: High speed elevator with 180-360 m/min speed.

Specific model names for Elevator products.

Below are acquired from documents intended for shareholder events dated back to 2017, it is unkown what these models corrosponds to, but the numbers stands for the controllers system used.

• GL368N
• GL568
• GF568HS

The document stated that "these passenger elevator products have passed T.U.V. energy consumption certificate class A", suggesting that none of these are freight elevator models.

These names are not intended for public knowledge and is for internal use only (e.g. for internal logistics).

There could be other yet to be discovered ones.

Discontinued

• C-Series, K-Series and N-Series: Passenger elevators

Notable installations

Mainland China

• Parkview Green Fangcaodi, Beijing(GFC)

Taiwan (GFC & Toshiba products)

Taipei City

• Taipei 101 (2003)
• Shin Kong Wu Huo-Shih Memorial Hospital (1992, modernized in 2022-2024)
• Grand Hyatt Taipei (1990, some have been modernized or refurbished in 2013)
• Shu Tian Building (1992, clinic area modernized in 2018)
• Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital (1996, modernized in 2022-2023)
• Taipei City Hospital Zhongxing Branch (1996, bed elevators modernized by GFC in 2020; some passenger elevators modernized by Thyssenkrupp in 2020)
• Le Meridien Taipei
• Acer Headquarters
• Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Tianmu Store A and B (2003)
• BELLAVITA (2009)
• Shin Kong Life Tower (1993)
  • Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Taipei Station Store
• Le Meridien Taipei (2010)
• Exchange Square (1999)
• Century Louvre Building (2003)
• Taipei New Horizon Building (2013)
• Taipei Metro - Songshan Line (2014)
• Caesar Metro Taipei
• Shin Kong World Commercial Building (1986, modernized in 2013)
• Taipei City Hospital Renai Branch (1983-1984, some have been modernized in 2023-2024)
• Far Eastern SOGO Zhongxiao Store (1987, modernized in 2015)
• Cathay Minsheng Jianguo Tower, Zhongshan (2018)
  • Courtyard by Marriott Taipei Downtown

• DoubleTree by Hilton Zhongshan, Zhongshan (2018)
• NOKE, Dazhi (2023)
• Les Enphants, Neihu
• Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store, Xinyi
• 83 Section 2, Yanping North Road, Datong

Other cities

• Shr-Hwa International Tower, Taichung City (2021, replacement from 2004 Thyssenkrupp elevators)
• Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan City
• Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) stations:
  • Taoyuan Station, Taoyuan City (2006)
  • Chiayi Station, Taibao City (2006)
• Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit, Kaohsiung City (2008, escalators)
• New stations of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit, Kaohsiung City (2018)
• Far Eastern SOGO Kaohsiung Store, Kaohsiung (1996)
• Chimei Museum, Tainan City (2015)
• 6+PLAZA, Zhubei City (2017)
• Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Hsinchu City
• Cathay General Hospital, Hsinchu (2002)
• Big City, Hsinchu City (2003)
• The Lalu Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi, Nantou (1989)
• Tiger City, Taichung (2002)
• Zunxian Building, Taichung (1995)
• Far Eastern SOGO Kaohsiung Store, Kaohsiung (1996)
• Taichung Bus Terminal, Taichung

Malaysia

• Bali Residence Klebang, Melaka, Malaysia (GFC genesis with N fixtures)

Controllers

From the oldest to newest.

88 (year unknown)

Main logic board: GFC-PU88, it is seen paired with a VF drive.

168 (around 2001)

168 controller inside a MRL controller cabinet

The 168 system was introduced in 2001.

The most significant feature is that it works with the the classic gfc led matrix indicators which shows animation that are in sync with the elevator's leveling, doors state etc, however, such indicator was not available until around 2008.

It supports floor cancelling, can not do intelligent levelling.

This system has been used for almost 20 years, they are all over the place in Taiwan, there might be some modification or different versions through the years, it has been the main force in their market for 20 years until the 568 series is introduced, Noticeable trait is that every action of the elevator is step by step, and the matrix indicator shows corresponding animations(traveling, leveling, door close and opening, etc.).

Video of a typical GFC 168 elevator

Main logic board variations:

• 4NGF-9003: The most common one.

• 4NGF-9010: Uses solid state relays instead.

368 (2011)

image of a 368 controller appeared in brochure for the genesis model in 2014

According to documents for company shareholders, 368 is largely based on the 168 system but offers more features, it was introduced at the end of 2011 and was supposed to phase out the 168 series, however, the company still continues to sell elevator running on 168 system, the 368 system is probably rarely used and very little is known about the system, surprisingly, it had made a presence in an archived brochure of the Genesis model.

It can be used on the Genesis model, and the Farglory Financial Center which has 14 Genesis 4m/s installations in 2014 is speculated to be using a controller system of this type.

Main logic board:

• PU368, it has a LCD on the logic board.

568 (2016)

GFC 568 controller

The 568 system is introduced in 2016. widely available after 2018.

According to documents for company shareholders, the 568 system has a modularized and extendible design. the PU568 main logic board utilizes a modern processor which enables intelligent levelling and such.

The most noticable trait for 568 controlled elevators is that it has intelligent leveling and supports pre-opening-doors.

Something trivial is that it is observed to have a two stage power saving mode, indicators dim in the first stage, when in the second stage, the power consumption will drop from 33 to 13 watts(with cabin illumination) if you call the lift, there will be a 5~6 second delay before it completely wakes up and opens the door or start moving toward your floor, normal and first stage will just react immediately upon button press(unless it has group control).

This new controller is most likely used on all type of lifts the company offered, from freight elevators all the way to high speed "Genesis" elevators.

Video of a typical GFC 568 elevator

Main logic board:

• PU568, it has a LCD on it, the relays were moved to a separate board RY568.

Elevator fixtures

List of GFC elevator fixtures

Traction machines

There are currently 2 known traction machine seen on their elevators:

1

They make loud brake clunk and audible high frequency noise

from a 2009 Gfc 168 MRL lift

2

New traction machine for both MR and MRL applications, these have clamp brakes that is silent, and the high frequency noise is extremely minimal

name plate

from a 2018 GFC 568 series MRL

Escalators

GFC installs Toshiba escalators or HANSON LIFT(Suzhou) escalators branded as GFC, they do not manufacture their own escalator products.

Technical collaboration with Toshiba

They have a "technical collaboration agreement" with Toshiba, a extremely similar practice to that of Yuntay, whose Japanese corrospondent is Hitachi.

In the early era, the Taiwanese company simply manufactures original Toshiba elevator equipments in their factory. for domestic elevator installations.

In the 2000s, a new practice is implemented, GFC no longer manufactures original Toshiba equipment , instead, Toshiba shares technical parameters and provide technologies to GFC, eventually the Taiwanese company will realize their own R&D effort and put into production, the product will be examined and validated by the Japanese party before GFC can put Toshiba branding on their elevator products.

It's hard to divide the exact timing when the new practice is applied over the last one, there exists elevators installed by gfc that uses Toshiba buttons(most likely manufactured domestically) but actually runs on GFC 88/168 controllers(you can tell by the two-speed-leveling) with generic VF drive.

the "technical collaboration agreement" with Toshiba still holds today even though it is very rare to see new gfc elevator installation with toshiba rebadging.

GFC is often considered as a subsidiary company, however, although have deep technical relations, it was actually never owned or partially owned by Toshiba, only the Shanghai division were once a joint venture between the two company in 1995 and was once named "GFC Toshiba Elevators Shanghai Co., Ltd.".

Trivia

• GFC also supplies and installs NuVA-branded pneumatic vacuum elevators, which are sold by GFC's subsidiary Howtobe Technology Co., Ltd.
• Because GFC is a distributor of Toshiba elevators, some Toshiba elevators in Taiwan are branded as GFC instead.
• There are many elevators in Taiwan That have Toshiba fixture elements but branded as GFC, these are actually indeed made by GFC, it runs on the 168 series or 88 series made by GFC and some components like the floor indicator (e.g. GFCDCBK-88) were also made by GFC which mimics Toshiba's style.
• The Yangmei elevator factory was the first elevator factory in Taiwan to obtain an ISO-14001 environmental management certification.
• The 2010 shareholder event documents from the company states (translated)"the GF168 control system has been used for almost ten yeas, assess situation regarding defunct component sources and the demand for more functionalities for the system, we will make modifications to GF168, it will be named GF368 after the change, and we will ask for Japan Toshiba's technological validation again...".
• GFC once stated in a presentation file that their intellegent leveling technology introduced in PU568 could reduce 3 seconds for leveling.
• Older GFC doors makes a uniquely creepy noise when opening/ closing, especially audible on telescopic ones.

External links

• Official website
• Official website brochures downloads (only in traditional Chinese)
• Official website shareholder meetings document downloads (only in traditional Chinese)
• NuVa Pneumatic Vacuum Elevator site
• Youtube video shot with cooperation from the company on the replacment of elevators with GFC genesis in the 國泰世華 building
• Youtube video featuring the machine room of a set of GFC 568 series elevators and the PU568 controller
• News regarding GFC's decision to focus on south east asia market and that there will be 8 high speed elevator installation in Malaysia in Q4 of 2020
• Youtube video featuring the 168 series 4ngf-9010 main logic board